Monday Thoughts 11.25.24

“Love the world and yourself in it, move through it as though it offers no resistance, as though the world is your natural element.”—Audrey Niffenegger

“You don’t have to fix anyone else or make them happy.  And you can’t no matter how hard you try.  Your job is to focus on taking care of yourself and love them while they learn to do the same.” —Lori Deschene

“Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort.” —Deborah Day

#10 All love given returns.

I am learning to know that I am loved.

Karen’s Thoughts

As a part of Level 5 recovery, Statement #10 asks for openness and then action, into love.  For women learning how to live their sober New Life, this can feel out of reach or even frightening.  This is where the WFS community can offer guidance and support.

After discovering this life-changing organization, I found myself lurking on the WFS Online forum.  What immediately struck me was how welcoming it all felt.  This was different; it felt different.  Here were women, sharing, listening, encouraging each other, ‘bonded together in overcoming our addictions’ like our WFS Motto states.  Love was cementing it all together.

Pouring over the posts each morning, I gained insights into my behavior while learning how to shift thinking.  Joy and laughter reappeared and sometimes silliness took center stage. It then dawned upon me; each day sober was an act of love…. towards myself.  I am learning to know that I am loved!

What other acts of love do you give yourself every day?

Hugzzz

Karen

Dee’s Thoughts

Dear 4C Women,

I have shared in my messages regarding Statement #10 that I have felt so much love this past year and a half since my daughter passed.  I think sometimes about how I would have survived at all without the outreach of WFS caring women who understand the grief, the need to stay sober and keeping hope within my heart.  I feel the love I have given over the past 35 years has indeed been returned. I found a Monday Thoughts from 2017 in which I shared about my daughter being in the hospital and the first time she was diagnosed with Diabetes.  I wrote that the response from the women I met in WFS was nothing short of a love fest and it continues to this day. I took a break from my in-person meetings due to my grief and then my surgery.  WFS has always been my passion as I am rewarded with the gift of seeing women change their lives in such a powerful, positive way.  This is why I treasure the in-person meetings, developing relationships and bonding over our shared acceptance of who we are at any given moment.   

I didn’t always feel that I was loved as I didn’t feel worthy.  WFS changed all that.  I learned to love myself and to receive love.  It was so different from wanting to be loved and becoming a people pleaser while unable to do the deep work of seeing the value, the worth of me!  One of the biggest changes was learning self-respect.  My lack of respect went back mainly to my education and my choices.  Rather than considering my age, my lack of life experience, I chose to see it all in a negative light.  I share this to encourage you to give yourself grace with your past, your choices and know that as long as you are open and willing to love yourself, accept love from others, forgive and respect yourself this very day, the recovery journey, your story, will be one of enormous personal growth. 

I love Karen’s suggestion about what acts of love you give yourself.  Think about what you feel is lovable about yourself.  Write it down, keep it close by so when you begin to doubt yourself and the fact that you are loved, you can look at the list and be assured that you are indeed worthy of love and being loved. 

Bonded in changing the course of your world through loving and knowing you are loved, Dee

Love tech and looking for a way to give back to WFS?

Are you passionate about our organization? Want to make our public and community websites engaging and user-friendly for all the women coming to womenforsobriety.org and wfsonline.org?

We are looking to expand the Web Team to support some exciting new initiatives coming in the New Year. If you have experience with any of the following, please consider joining our team:

• UX/UI design
• WordPress
• BuddyBoss
• LearnDash LMS
• SquareSpace
• App development
• Learning module creation
• SEO best practices

Not the most tech savvy? You can still be a great addition to the team if you like writing, researching, and helping others! All are welcome regardless of their technical abilities. If you consider yourself teachable, we are happy to train on more technical skills. 

We meet on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month at 1PM ET. Please email [email protected] if you are interested or fill out the volunteer form here.